Bohemian Grove

The Bohemian Club was founded in 1872 in San Francisco by journalists, artists, and musicians. Over the decades, it evolved to become a club reserved for the American elite: presidents, CEOs, bankers, generals, and politicians. Membership is exclusively male and by invitation only, with a waiting list that can last 15-20 years. Initiation fees and annual dues are high.

The annual summer camp ('Summer Encampment') takes place each year during the last two weeks of July at Bohemian Grove, a 2,700-acre (approximately 11 km2) wooded property near Monte Rio, in Sonoma County, California. Members are divided into approximately 120 themed camps (Hillbillies, Mandalay, Cave Man, etc.).

The most controversial ceremony is the 'Cremation of Care,' which opens the camp. Participants, clad in robes, attend a theatrical ceremony in which an effigy ('Dull Care') is burned on an altar at the foot of a 12-meter (40-foot) owl statue ('Owl Shrine'), symbolizing the liberation from worldly worries. The ceremony includes torches, music, and a narrator. The club claims it is a theatrical symbolic tradition dating back to 1880.

Among documented members and invitees: Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, Gerald Ford, Herbert Hoover, Dwight Eisenhower, Henry Kissinger, Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld, as well as CEOs of major corporations (Bechtel, Bank of America, etc.). A recording of Richard Nixon dating from 1971, declassified in 1999, shows him calling the camp "the most faggy goddamn thing you could ever imagine" (an extremely vulgar and homophobic expression).

In July 2000, conspiracy theorist and broadcaster Alex Jones infiltrated the camp and secretly filmed the 'Cremation of Care' ceremony. His video, broadcast in the documentary 'Dark Secrets: Inside Bohemian Grove,' went viral and is the primary vector of modern conspiracy theories about the Grove. Jones claims he witnessed a 'Satanic human sacrifice ritual,' an interpretation rejected by experts and the club itself.

Journalist Philip Weiss also infiltrated the camp in 1989 and published a detailed article in the magazine Spy ('Masters of the Universe Go to Camp,' November 1989), offering a more nuanced portrait but revealing the extent of elite connections.

Conspiracy theories allege: (1) Satanic rituals and human sacrifices, (2) major political decisions made during the camp (the allegation that the Manhattan Project was planned at Bohemian Grove in 1942 is often cited), (3) illicit sexual practices, (4) a connection to the Illuminati and the New World Order (NWO). The allegation concerning the Manhattan Project is partially corroborated: a 1942 camp gathering brought together physicists and military officials involved in the project, but formal decisions were made elsewhere.

Regarding the etymology of the ceremony: the word 'Care' (< Old English 'cearu') meant 'anxiety, anguish,' not 'compassion,' giving the ceremony a meaning opposite to what the term evokes in modern English. Burning 'Dull Care' equates to burning away the weight of responsibilities and anxieties, not burning away empathy.

The voice of the Owl, Owlshire, was provided for many years by a recording of Walter Cronkite, the CBS Evening News anchor—an iconic figure in American journalism and himself a club member. This factual and confirmed detail illustrates the porosity between media, political, and economic elites.

On the side of opponents: since 1980, activists have organized a counter-ceremony the day after the entry port, called 'Resurrection of Care' (first edition by activist Mary Moore), symbolically inverse—'resurrecting care' to prevent the elite from forgetting their social responsibilities. Moore was less concerned with the rituals than with the risk that members with industrial interests would informally influence the government.

Journalist Jon Ronson (Channel 4, series 'Secret Rulers of the World,' 2001) was present during the infiltration and offers the most restrained description: 'My lasting impression was of a pervasive sense of immaturity: Elvis impersonators, pseudo-occult rituals, and excessive alcohol consumption. These people may have reached the pinnacle of their profession, but emotionally they seemed stuck in the college era.’ His book 'Them: Adventures with Extremists' (2002) remains the most nuanced journalistic reference.